There is a central problem in the field of Analytical psychology that is the elephant in the room: in more than six decades, no one has been able to reach Jung’s level of individuation. In his corpus, Jung clearly stated that three mystical experiences or experiences of the Self appear as the signposts of a successful individuation, yet none of his followers seems to have reached them. We know that Carl Jung found in Gnosticism and Alchemy, two systems that explained the process leading to mystical experiences. Almost every one of his books after 1928 is dedicated to that study. It was in AION-Researches into the phenomenology of the Self (1951) and Mysterium Conjunctionis (1956) that he delivered his most profound comprehension of those phenomena. Unfortunately, the Jungian community has been unable to understand Jung’s most precious teaching up to this day. This paper examines three possible explanations for that complex problem.
Keywords: Carl Jung, mystical experience, opposites, Gnostics, Gnosticism, alchemy, Gerhard Dorn, the Self, individuation process, complexio oppositorum, AION, Mysterium Conjunctionis, philosopher’s stone
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